Pavel Pepperstein is a Russian artist who leaves and works in Moscow. He belongs to the artist group "Inspection Medical Hermeneutics" (MH) together with Sergei Anufriev of Joud Leiderman. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many Russian artists were seduced by western mass culture. In opposition to the new influences Pepperstein co-founded the "Inspection Medical Hermeneutics" (*1987). "The artistic agenda of Pepperstein and Medical Hermeneutics basically consists of artificially creating a subculture that looks as if it were just about to explode the boundaries of its self contained and exclusive seclusion."

"Kandinsky Tower" is a part of "City of Russia" project where the artist is trying to draw the authorities' attention to the fact that total overhaul of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, which runs parallel to post-Soviet Russia's economic growth, has not only changed the look of these cities, but also leads to much more serious consequences. While we destroy these cities and call this process "reconstruction", we have lost and continue to lose much more than old, dysfunctional buildings and narrow streets, which aren't fit for heavy traffic. We kill off the historical memory and make an attempt upon the nation of Russia's self-consciousness. The artist decides to draw the authorities' attention to this problem with a radical gesture (in the context of Russian art-world's connections to the higher powers). Pepperstein authored a letter addressed to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov and governor of Saint-Petersburg Valentina Matvienko, where he puts forward his understanding of the problem and discusses variants of solving it. As a solution of this problem the artist depicts a futuristic city, encumbered in science fiction architecture, which simultaneously brings to mind Russian avant-garde's massive scale utopias seeking to reinvent the space, architectural projects of the 1920s, which relied on new social theories, and Russian's space age faith in the future (the 1960s).

His work was recently shown in Solitude au Musee at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart and at the Musee d'Art Moderne in Saint Etienne. He will be soon presented in Malmo. Sw, at the Bienale of Valencia, SP and at the Kunsthaus of Zug. CH together with Ilya Kabakov and Boris Grojs.


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Pavel Pepperstein
The gigantic skyscraper The Kandinsky Tower is to be erected in 2087 in the City of Russia, 2007
Acryl on Canvas,
70X190 cm

Provenance :
White Space Gallery, XXXMALEVICH- 12 February - 14 March, 2009 3-d Moscow Bienale September 2009

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